Page:The poisonous snakes of India. For the use of the officials and others residing in the Indian Empire (IA poisonoussnakeso01ewar).pdf/37

 BUNGARUS.

Giinther's description of this genus is given below.

"Body rather elongate; tail comparatively short; head more or less dileted, depressed, with broad, rounded muzzle; scarcely distinct from reck, which is not dilatable. Eye small, with round pupil. Rostral shield broader than high, reaching to upper part of snout, anterior frontals half the size of the posterior; vertical five-sided; occipitals tapering behind. Nostril rather wide between two nasals. Loreal none; one præ-, two post-oculars. Seven upper labials, the third and fourth entering the orbit. Scales smooth, moderately imbricate, dis- posed in oblique rows, forining fifteen longitudinal series round the body; those of the vertebral series are very broad hexagonal. Ventrals between 200 and 250 ; anal and sub-caudals entire. Scales without apicial groove. Maxillary bone with a fang in front; a second small simple tooth at some distance behind the fang."

“The Bungarus," says Sir Joseph Fayrer," are diurnal terrestrial snakes, but like others, they generally prefer the shade to the sunshine. They are found in the open country, in grass and low jungle, and in fields. They live in holes in the ground, sometimes down among the roots of trees at a considerable depth. They are not frequently seen in inhabited places, though they do at times find their way into huts and houses. I killed a very large one in Rangoon many years ago that got into a hut full of Dhoolie bearers at the field hospital during the last Burincse wai. They feed on small animals, snakes, frogs, toads, lizards, and they are very poisonous; but owing to the shortness of their fang, which is much smaller than that of the cobra, their bite is less dangerous, and excision being more practicable, treatment may be useful and recoveries more numerous.'